The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-12-24
THE OLD woMAN.s MILL.
rrom .Ae cerman of Richar, Leanaer.

ingen, stands the Old Woman Mill. It very much resembles an immense cof- fec mill, only that the handle to be turned is underneath; that which serves the purpose of handle con- sisting of two great beams projecting out from beneath the mill, which is set in motion by two boys, who apply hand power to these beams and thus turn the mill. The old women are put in at the top, wrinkled and bent, toothless and hairless they come out below, rosy checked young and hand- some. It is all done with one turn of the mill cruck! crack! so that even the listener feels it in bone and mar row but if he asks those who come out young again if it did not hurt dreadfully, they reply, "Oh, not at all !! it was, in fact, quite delightful! !! The feeling is very much as when one wakes up early after a nights good rest, and sees the sun shining in at the window, hears the birds singing out of doors, the leaves of the trees rust ling, and turns and stretches himself in bed. Fhen ones bones sometimes crack"
 Now long distance from Apolda i there once lived an old woman who had heard of this mill, and as she felt that she would like very much to be young again, one day she all at once made up her mind and started off. The journey was indeed tiresome :; again and again was she obliged to stop and cough, but with time she at last arrived before the mill
 "I want to be ground over and made young again." said she to a young fellow who was sitting on a bench near the mill, his hands in his trousers pockets, while he blew wreaths of smoke from out his pipe. "O-h-dear! what long way from Apolda herew
 "What is your name?" said the youth, yawning.
 "They call me Old Mother Klap- prothen."
 "Sit down on the bench and wait a minute, Mother Klapprothen," said the young fellow, and he got up and went into the mill, opened a great OOOh un0 O0tlIC Oot uk0Au W AAh n iOAk paper in his hand.
 "I suppose, youngster, that's the bill to be paid" said the old woman.
 "Oh, not at all," was the answer. "You don't have to pay anything for the grinding; all you have to do is first to sign your name to this paper.
 "Sign my namew exclaimed the cid woman. "Sign my poor soul over to the evil one No, guess not you won't catch me doing that thing. would have you to know Pm pious woman, and expect to go to heaven when die"
 "Oh, it is not so bad as that" said the youth, laughing. "On this paper Is written nothing but list of the fol- lies that you have committed during your whole life, and they are put down here in the order in which they were committed, date and place also given. Before being ground over you must pledge yourself, when you are once again young, to commit again every one of these follies, in the same order of succession as before in fact, exactly as written on this paper
 Thereupon he ran his eye over the paper and said, with alf-concealed smile, Ideally, rather many, Mother Klapprothen, rather many, really From the sixteenth to the twenty sixth year of life, one daily Sundays two. Alter that little better. But in the beginning of the forties don't they come thick! And then still further on about as usual"
 At this the old woman sighed as she said, But, look you, 1t doesn't pay to have ones self ground over at that pricew
 "To be sure, to be sure," replied the youth, "for most people it doesn't pay and hence we have pretty easy time seven days every week the mill stands still, especially of late years. There was time before that when business was a little livelier."
 "But isn't it possible to strike out something, at least, from the cata- logue," said the old woman batting the youth on the shoulder. "Only just three things, my young friend and all the rest will do, if l must, ii I really must do them again." "No, replied the youth, "that ii downright impossible. Either-Or-' "Take back your paper" said ths old woman after moments thought Eve lost my fancy for your stupid old mill !" and she set out on her road home again.
 But when arrived there the neigh bors looked at her with astonishment saying, "Why, Mother Klapprotben you're just as old as you were before you went away! What's the matter with the mill, isn't there one?" and shs merely coughed and said, "Oh-yes- there is such a nill, but I was too much afraid, and then, alter all, what